July 2014 Vietnam Trip Report

07/09/14 22:40

This summer, we again travel to Vietnam to visit the children. We visited 6 orphanages. We awarded the children who did well in school last year with gifts and treats for all the children, After many years of visiting Thien Binh, the children was happy to see us and called me "chu Thang" which was a very warm feeling. It is a privilege to be part of the children's lives. After many trials and thanks to Kathy, we were able to install Skype with audio at Thien Binh, now, the sponsors can communicate with their children directly. Kathy also brought gifts from her family and friends to donate to the children.

At Thien Binh, there are 2 deaf children, Sen and Hieu. Sen is one of our sponsored children. We took Sen to Photonak for screening, the good news is that her hearing can be restored with the best hearing aid. The cost for the hearing aid is $5300 which includes life-time guarantee, and 6 month of training and learning. In addition, one new baby, be Tuyet, was born without rectum. We took her to a children hospital in Saigon, and she was diagnostic with other medical conditions, hydrocephalus and no hip bone. The surgery to remove water from her brain was done to prevent brain damage. We are raising fund to help be Tuyet with other surgeries; http://www.youcaring.com/nonprofits/gift-of-hearing-and-gift-of-life/206373

We received good news that a charity group has agreed to sponsor 35 children from Tu Hanh which bring the total number of supported children to 60. At Diệu Giác, the number of orphans remains the same. The total number of sponsored children is increased to 75.

We also traveled to Pleiku/KomTum to visit our sponsored orphanage, Mai Am Guise. This place is hard to reach, it took us 2 full days on the road to travel and return. The children are very timid and not use to have visitor. We are currently sponsored 6 children from Mai Am Guise and the wish of the director is to increase to 12 children.

We also visited 2 orphanages, Mai Am Rosa in Hoc Mon and Pleiku, that are not sponsored by H4VO. The orphanages have about 75 children and are managed by Da Minh Catholic Church; they are potentially our next sponsored orphanage. The orphanages include many minority children from Pleiku and Komtum. They also have a vocational training center in Ho Nai for 33 children.

And most of all, we would like to thank all of you who have been supporting H4VO mission for all these years. Without your support, none of these successes would have been possible.